Cookham appears to have had civilization
for the last 4,000 years. There is a little Bronze Age site, set in the northern bend between Marlow and Cookham.
At Cockmarsh there are 3 barrows still visible, one just as a crop mark. The biggest is about 3m high, with a bit of a ditch left on the north side.

Cookham has its roots in prehistory you will find two megaliths, the Cookham Stone and the Tarry Stone

Romans

The Romans appear to have had
some sort of settlement at the southern end of the village of Cookham
Rise.

Cookham was a crossing point of the river for the Romans on the Camlet Way between Silchester and Verulanium (present day St Albans).
A Romano-British site occurred on Gibralter Meadow, at the foot of Winter
Hill. It is possible this was a site of a ferry.

One
Roman road ran from Braywick to Cockmarsh passing close to Cookham Railway
station. Several artifacts were discovered, also a kiln built of chalk and
flint. Roman pottery, brooches and other items have been found in the area.

Saxons

After the Romans left in
AD400, early Saxon settlers in the
parish appear to have liked the area around Cookham Rise. There was
probably an adjoining river port named “Cwch-ium” - Celtic for
Boat-Place The island of Odney may have been sacred to the chief Saxon
god, Woden, being Wodenes-Eye or “Woden’s Isle”. The river divided
the territories of Mercia and Wessex, Cookham being on the Wessex side.

Cookham Church was mentioned in a charter as being attached to a monastery in existence in 726.
Its actual location is unknown, but it is thought that it was close to the
present church.

It is likely that the fort at Cookham was
completed by the year 886. Alfred the Great tried to ensure that no part
of Wessex was more than twenty miles from a fortified centre.

870 AD the Vikings row up Thames.
There are many names still linking to the Danes in the area. Danesfield
off the Cookham Road.

The present village of Cookham probably
grew up around an 8th century Saxon Monastery situated in the parish,
probably a twin-house for both monks and nuns. A National Religious Synod
once met there. The Saxon Kings also had a Royal Palace here.

997 - The Witan (Saxon parliament) met in 997
at Cookham held by Ethelred the Unready.
Attending the Witan were 1 arch bishop, 3 bishops, 2 aldermen, 3 abbots
and numerous lords from West Saxons, Mercians, Danes and English.

Cookham
became a royal manor sometime between 965 and 975, administered by King
Edgar from his palace in Old Windsor. Cookham remained crown property
until 1818.

1000s

In the Domesday Book (1086)
Cookham is listed as containing '32 villagers, 21 cottagers, 4 slaves, 2 mills, 2 fisheries and woodland at 100 pigs'.
It appears as Cocheham.

1086 A market was established worth
20s. Fairs used to be held on 16 May and 11 October.

1100s

In 1140, a Norman church was built on the site of Holy Trinity Church, Cookham.
There is an interesting Lady Chapel part of the current Holy Trinity
church dated to 1182. It was built on the site of a hermitage that adjoined the old Norman building. An anchoress lived here through the generosity of King Henry II, who may have been trying to expiate himself for the murder of St. Thomas à
Beckett. She died in 1181.

By 1166 the original manor of Cookham was
broken up into several smaller manors which were held mainly by local
gentry. There were six main estates, the manor of Lullebrooke probably
being the most important. The Odney Club is built on the site of the original
manor house.

1200s

Although Cookham is described as a village,
in 1225 it was described as a
borough at the assizes. When a wooden bridge was built across the Thames by
1250 at Maidenhead as part of the London to Bristol main road, Cookham
started to lose its status as Maidenhead grew.

1281 Edward I assigned the manor of Cookham
to his mother Eleanor.

1292 The name Lullebrooke Manor came about when it was sold to
Walter de Lullebroc.

Towards the end of the 1200s the north
arcade of the nave of Holy Trinity Church, which consists of two independent
arches, was rebuilt (the earlier openings being perhaps enlarged), the
chancel arch was reconstructed and the south aisle was added. In the south
wall of the south aisle are three windows of about 1270

1300s

Early in the 1300s the south
aisle of Holy Trinity church was continued eastward to form the south
chapel . The present church is mostly 13th century.

1341 Joan the widow of Robert de
Lullebroc, obtained licence to have an oratory in the manor of Lullebrook.

Around 1350 Churchgate House, timber-framed house by Holy Trinity was originally built. It has a priest-hole and is said to
have been the residence of the Abbot of
Cirencester.

First swan master appointed, which
created the activity of swan upping.

1400s

The Bel and the Dragon built
in 1417, it is one of the oldest licensed houses in England.

1500s

In the 1500s the west tower of
Holy Trinity was built.

The Forge in Cookham Dean is thought to date back to the time
of Elizabeth I and has been a forge over 400 years.

The original Stone House was built by the monks of Bisham and after the dissolution
of the monasteries was given to Anne of Cleeves by Henry VIII as part of her
divorce settlement. She exchanged it for a manor in Suffolk so it fell into
disrepair and was dismantled and a building of the same name was built and at
one time housed an illicit distillery.

1597 Elizabeth I leased Widbrook to the villagers. On termination of the
lease the villagers refused to return their grazing rights to the Crown,
this was upheld by the Courts and Widbrook has been common land ever
since.

1600s

Cromwell Cottages at Cookham Dean are thought to have had Roundhead soldiers billeted there during the Civil War.

Chequers Inn in Cookham Dean is built. Said
to have been run by the Copas family who still farm in the village.

The
Kings Arms was built as a stopping place for the coach running from
Reading to Windsor. It was formally the Kings Head and was the home of the
widow Martha Spott. In 1668 she minted her own coinage.

1700s

March 9th 1741, Richard
Smith, a highwayman was shot on the road and interred
in the churchyard.

.A parliamentary report of 1776-7 reported that Cookham had a parish workhouse accommodating up to 90 inmates.
This is now part of Maidenhead.

1785 Formosa Place, the seat of Sir
George Young, bart., was built.

1800s

The Royal Manor of Cookham was held by the Crown until 1818. when
it was purchased by George Bangley, the London stationer.

1830 Cookham Lock is opened replacing
Hedsor Wharf.

1838 George Bangley sells the Manor of
Cookham to Ebenezer Fuller Maitland who sold it to the Vansittarts of
Bisham Abbey.

In 1839, the Tarrystone, or Cookham Stone
as it was then called, was moved from its present position by George
Venables when Cookham bridge was started and taken to Mill House Gardens.
This reputedly brought a curse on the Venables family. The
Tarrystone is thought to be either a mounting block or
possibly a meteorite

15 May 1845 St John the Baptist in Cookham Dean was
consecrated by Richard Bagot, Lord
Bishop of Oxford. The foundation
stone had been laid by the Vicar of Cookham on 15th July 1844. The
church was built by Silver & Sons of Tittle Row, Maidenhead, at a cost
of about £1300. It contains windows by such famous artists as Lavers &
Barraud, Charles Eamer
Kempe and Clayton & Bell. The rerodos was carved in 1876. Rev. George Hewitt Hodson was the first
incumbent in 1844. The land was given by the Lady of the Manor, Mrs Ann Mary
Vansittart, with the consent of the Commoners

1846 A Wesleyan Chapel is built in
Cookham Village, later to become the Stanley Spencer Gallery in 1962.

1849 The Manor of Cookham was purchased
from Mrs. A. M. Vansittart by Henry Skrine of Stubbings and Warleigh whose
family still own it.

1854 Cookham railway line opens from
Maidenhead to Wycombe.

1840 a wooden road bridge was constructed
across the Thames by Freebody. This soon rotted and Cookham bridge was built in 1867 to replace
it. It is constructed of iron to an attractive design.
It was a toll bridge which was ceased when the bridge was sold to
Berkshire County Council, the old toll house can still be seen.

1860 Canon Joseph Thomas Brown
restored the church and made other improvements in the parish.

Guglielmo Marconi 1874-1937,pioneer in wireless
communication, lived at ‘Hillyers’, Cookham Rise, where he is thought to have conducted experimental transmissions in 1897.

1879 - Cookham Dean Football Club is
formed

1882 - The first Cookham Regatta is held,
by 1890 this was attended by 10,000 people.

1891 Birth of the famous artist, Sir Stanley
Spencer on 30 June at Fernlea in Cookham High Street. Several of his paintings
were set in the village.

1894 The parish of Cookham is formed from
the ancient parish by the severance of that part of Maidenhead lying north
of the London and Bath Road.

1900s

1908 Kenneth Grahame's Wind
in the Willows is published. Grahame wrote the Wind in the Willows at Herries School
in Cookham Dean. He lived with his grandmother at ‘The Mount’ in Cookham
Dean as a child.

1901 The Reading Room in Lower Road was
located to the current Social Club, built by Mr Pinder Brown, to become a
Reading Room and Working Men's Club. This was sold to the Social Club in
1947. Women could still not enter, although this was relaxed in the late
1960s when they could enter as guests, although they still could not
become members.

1910 the old Fire Brigade building was
erected in the Pound, but was sold off in 1929.

1911 The Kings Hall is given to the
village by Colonel Ricardo, as a reading room when the new Methodist
Church in Cookham Rise is built.

1927 Lullebrooke Manor
and grounds were bought by the John Lewis Partnership and have been used
by the company as a country club and training centre ever since. It is
normally known at the Odney Club.

1936 The Pinder Hall is built through the
generosity of Mr H Pinder-Brown. The
architect was Mr A Vernon Kislingbury of Cookham and the building was
erected by Messrs. Cripps and Green Ltd of Maidenhead and the electrical
work was carried out by Mr T G Church of Cookham.

1937 Cookham railway station opens.

1939 Pinder
Hall requisitioned to provide a school for
LOC evacuees from Fulham

1947 Severe flooding in Cookham takes
place.

1948 Cookham Reach Sailing Club formed,
It was in the garden of a Mr Lilley at Cookham Reach. Boats
were launched by the Ferry Inn and paddled upstream to the Club.

1945 - 1950 Moor Hall is used by GB
Animation financed by J Arthur Rank. The Animaland cartoons were produced
there.

1950 the toll over Cookham bridge is
stopped. The toll house can still be seen at the entrance to the bridge from Bourne End.

1959 Death of the painter Sir Stanley
Spencer. His grave can be seen in Holy
Trinity churchyard.

1962 The Stanley Spencer Gallery is
opened at the King's Hall, the old Wesleyan Chapel.

1964 St Elisabeth's Catholic Church in
Lower Road opened

1971 the Chartered Institute of Marketing
moves to Moor Hall taking over from ICL.

1977 Celebrations of the Queen's Silver
Jubilee. Cookham High Street is closed for a street party.

1988 The Cookham Regatta is revived after
58 years.

1994 Cookham twins with St Benoit near
Poitiers in France.

1997 Cookham has its first radio station
Cookham Summer FM. This is repeated in 1999 and 2006.

2009 - Let's Rock the
Moor was held as part of the Cookham Festival during May, with quite a lot
of opposition. It has been repeated yearly ever since after a lot of
bureaucracy for the organisers to keep it running.

2012 - On 4 June a street
party was held in the High Street to celebrate the Queen's Diamond
Jubilee.